And just like that, someone’s titanic ego hit the proverbial iceberg of disgust.
Sarah Jessica Parker has spent decades playing her alter ego Carrie Bradshaw, so much that Parker’s identity seems entwined with her selfish, narcissistic, insufferable character.
Just as Carrie is completely oblivious to the real world around her — to the needs, feelings and opinions of anyone else — so, it seems, is SJP.
Recent reports suggest she is furious over the dismal Sex and the City reboot, And Just Like That, concluding after only three seasons.
This couldn’t be happening to a more deserving person.
Parker, who has long been rumored to be the head Mean Girl of Sex and the City, was allegedly the reason co-star Kim Cattrall chose not to participate in the reboot (except for a single cameo, for which Cattrall was reportedly paid $1 million, with the condition that she would have no interaction with any of the other actresses).
Hmmmm.
According to reports, Sarah Jessica Parker is furious that her disappointing Sex and the City reboot, And Just Like That, is ending after just three seasons. This seems like it couldn’t happen to a more deserving person.
Parker, often rumored to be the head Mean Girl of Sex and the City, was supposedly the reason co-star Kim Cattrall declined to participate in the reboot (except for one cameo, for which Cattrall reportedly received $1 million, on the condition that there would be no contact with the other actresses).
Now, before we get to the latest developments — and the schadenfreude here is off-the-charts — let’s revisit how this denouement played out.
A week ago, Parker and her showrunner Michael Patrick King took to social media, portraying the conclusion of And Just Like That as their own creative decision.
Apparently not so.
But first, let’s hear these two try to save face — after producing three seasons of woke, humorless dreck, giving us Che Diaz (one of the most loathed TV characters ever), and destroying the legacy of Sex and the City.
MPK’s statement read: ‘While I was writing the last episode of And Just Like That season three, it became clear to me that this might be a wonderful place to stop. Along with Sarah Jessica Parker… we decided to end the popular series this year with a two-part finale.’
‘Popular’ is certainly one way to put describe a hate-watch for the ages.
MPK’s statement defies logic. If one thing was abundantly clear from the show’s lazy writing, the lack of continuity (the writers killed off the same character twice!), and the phoned-in performances, this entire enterprise was a cash grab.
Who gives up easy money?
An artisté such as Michael Patrick King — arguably a misogynist, who made the elegant Upper East Side doyenne Charlotte fall face first into a condom full of ejaculate?
Or who made Carrie urinate on herself, in bed after a hip replacement, while her friend Miranda got digitally serviced by Che in Carrie’s own kitchen?
I think not.
King continued: ‘SJP and I held off announcing the news until now because we didn’t want the word “final” to overshadow the fun of watching the season.’
The FUN!
Over on her Instagram account, Parker posted a much-too-long tribute to herself as Carrie, accompanied by this pompous claim: ‘MPK and I together recognized, as we have in the past, this chapter complete.’
Within mere days, SJP’s dignity was gone, HBO Max’s clear offer to let these two save face discarded.
On Monday, RadarOnline reported that a ‘seething’ SJP was outraged over the ‘cancellation’.
‘They [HBO] told her, but it wasn’t a conversation,’ a top source told Rob Shuter. ‘It was, “We’re done.” No discussion. No collaboration. Just final’.
Well, well, well.
Just as so many of us suspected all along.
But Parker wasn’t done!
Shuter reported she was ‘p***ed’ that HBO hadn’t even thrown her a farewell party. For what? Costing them financially and reputationally?
‘What stings most was how transactional [the relationship with HBO] was,’ Shuter’s source added.
Does Parker not understand the industry she’s worked in since childhood? Hollywood is nothing but transactional.
This fawn-in-the-woods act is so galling, especially given that SJP was an executive producer on the show. Her power was in tandem with King’s.
As reported in a 2023 New Yorker profile, Parker invited journalist Rachel Syme to see her work on an episode.
The 31-page piece entitled ‘Why Sarah Jessica Parker Keeps Playing Carrie Bradshaw’, showed Parker to be meticulous on set, down to the color of a bow on a shoe, or the way a cigarette was lit.
In the editing suite, she stopped to ensure the sound of a knuckle crack was perfect.
‘Freedom comes from preparation,’ she told Syme. ‘I say to everybody, ‘I hope you brought a book, because I’m going to need to figure this out’.’
So all of Parker’s protestations and incredulity over the cancellation – or her utter puzzlement as to why Kim Cattrall wanted nothing to do with her – fall flat.
All of Parker’s protestations and incredulity over the cancellation – or her utter puzzlement as to why Kim Cattrall wanted nothing to do with her – fall flat
In a vintage display of that faux-naivete, Parker sat with her real-life best friend Andy Cohen on his talk show, Watch What Happens Live, back in 2018 and expressed bewilderment.
‘What was your reaction to Kim Cattrall telling Piers Morgan that you were never friends, just colleagues?’ Cohen asked.
‘Uh… just… heartbroken,’ Parker said in a tortured, lengthy answer. ‘That’s not the way I recall our experience.’
Cattrall had been very clear, posting to Instagram that February, having lost her brother, that Parker’s public condolences were unwanted.
‘Your continuous reaching out,’ Cattrall wrote, ‘is a painful reminder of how cruel you really were then and now. Let me make this VERY clear (if I haven’t already). You are not my family. You are not my friend. So I’m writing to tell you one last time to stop exploiting our tragedy in order to restore your “nice girl” persona.’
Cattrall then linked to a 2017 New York Post story headlined: ‘Inside the mean-girls culture that destroyed Sex and The City.’
The entire post remains on Cattrall’s Instagram.
And so Sarah Jessica Parker, 60, joins the ranks of two other peers who refuse to take the memo — not just from their corporate overlords but their dwindling audiences — that their services are no longer wanted.
Just as Stephen Colbert is protesting his own termination, and Howard Stern struggles to cobble together a contract extension to save what little dignity he has, SJP refuses to go gracefully.
The ‘fuming’ fading star, Radar reports, ‘is pitching everything from a spinoff to a limited series’ at other streamers. And she is ‘demanding full creative control.’
If Parker had a shred of self-awareness, she’d consider moving on to a more appropriate role: Norma Desmond.
